Marlon Brando

Birthday: 3 April 1924, Omaha, Nebraska, USA

Birth Name: Marlon Brando Jr.

Height: 175 cm

Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in 1949, a decision for which he was severely criticized when his star began to dim in the 1960s and he was excoriated for squandering his talents. No actor ever exerted such a profound influence on succeeding generations of actors as did Brando. More than 50 years after he first scorched the screen as Stanley Kowalski in the movie version of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and a quarter-century after his last great performance as Col. Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979), all American actors are still being measured by the yardstick that was Brando. It was if the shadow of John Barrymore, the great American actor closest to Brando in terms of talent and stardom, dominated the acting field up until the 1970s. He did not, nor did any other actor so dominate the public's consciousness of what WAS an actor before or since Brando's 1951 on-screen portrayal of Stanley made him a cultural icon. Brando eclipsed the reputation of other great actors circa 1950, such as Paul Muni and Fredric March. Only the luster of Spencer Tracy's reputation hasn't dimmed when seen in the starlight thrown off by Brando. However, neither Tracy nor Olivier created an entire school of acting just by the force of his personality. Brando did.Marlon Brando, Jr. was born on April 3, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Marlon Brando, Sr., a calcium carbonate salesman, and his artistically inclined wife, the former Dorothy Julia Pennebaker. "Bud" Brando was one of three children. His ancestry included English, Irish, German, Dutch, French Huguenot, Welsh, and Scottish; his surname originated with a distant German immigrant ancestor named "Brandau". His oldest sister Jocelyn Brando was also an actress, taking after their mother, who engaged in amateur theatricals and mentored a then-unknown Henry Fonda, another Nebraska native, in her role as director of the Omaha Community Playhouse. Frannie, Brando's other sibling, was a visual artist. Both Brando sisters contrived to leave the Midwest for New York City, Jocelyn to study acting and Frannie to study art. Marlon managed to escape the vocational doldrums forecast for him by his cold, distant father and his disapproving schoolteachers by striking out for The Big Apple in 1943, following Jocelyn into the acting profession. Acting was the only thing he was good at, for which he received praise, so he was determined to make it his career - a high-school dropout, he had nothing else to fall back on, having been rejected by the military due to a knee injury he incurred playing football at Shattuck Military Academy, Brando Sr.'s alma mater. The school booted Marlon out as incorrigible before graduation.Acting was a skill he honed as a child, the lonely son of alcoholic parents. With his father away on the road, and his mother frequently intoxicated to the point of stupefaction, the young Bud would play-act for her to draw her out of her stupor and to attract her attention and love. His mother was exceedingly neglectful, but he loved her, particularly for instilling in him a love of nature, a feeling which informed his character Paul in Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) ("Last Tango in Paris") when he is recalling his childhood for his young lover Jeanne. "I don't have many good memories," Paul confesses, and neither did Brando of his childhood. Sometimes he had to go down to the town jail to pick up his mother after she had spent the night in the drunk tank and bring her home, events that traumatized the young boy but may have been the grain that irritated the oyster of his talent, producing the pearls of his performances. Anthony Quinn, his Oscar-winning co-star in Viva Zapata! (1952) told Brando's first wife Anna Kashfi, "I admire Marlon's talent, but I don't envy the pain that created it."Brando enrolled in Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop at New York's New School, and was mentored by Stella Adler, a member of a famous Yiddish Theatre acting family. Adler helped introduce to the New York stage the "emotional memory" technique of Russian theatrical actor, director and impresario Konstantin Stanislavski, whose motto was "Think of your own experiences and use them truthfully." The results of this meeting between an actor and the teacher preparing him for a life in the theater would mark a watershed in American acting and culture.Brando made his debut on the boards of Broadway on October 19, 1944, in "I Remember Mama," a great success. As a young Broadway actor, Brando was invited by talent scouts from several different studios to screen-test for them, but he turned them down because he would not let himself be bound by the then-standard seven-year contract. Brando would make his film debut quite some time later in Fred Zinnemann's The Men (1950) for producer Stanley Kramer. Playing a paraplegic soldier, Brando brought new levels of realism to the screen, expanding on the verisimilitude brought to movies by Group Theatre alumni John Garfield, the predecessor closest to him in the raw power he projected on-screen. Ironically, it was Garfield whom producer Irene Mayer Selznick had chosen to play the lead in a new Tennessee Williams play she was about to produce, but negotiations broke down when Garfield demanded an ownership stake in "A Streetcar Named Desire." Burt Lancaster was next approached, but couldn't get out of a prior film commitment. Then director Elia Kazan suggested Brando, whom he had directed to great effect in Maxwell Anderson's play "Truckline Café," in which Brando co-starred with Karl Malden, who was to remain a close friend for the next 60 years.During the production of "Truckline Café", Kazan had found that Brando's presence was so magnetic, he had to re-block the play to keep Marlon near other major characters' stage business, as the audience could not take its eyes off of him. For the scene where Brando's character re-enters the stage after killing his wife, Kazan placed him upstage-center, partially obscured by scenery, but where the audience could still see him as Karl Malden and others played out their scene within the café set. When he eventually entered the scene, crying, the effect was electric. A young Pauline Kael, arriving late to the play, had to avert her eyes when Brando made this entrance as she believed the young actor on stage was having a real-life conniption. She did not look back until her escort commented that the young man was a great actor.The problem with casting Brando as Stanley was that he was much younger than the character as written by Williams. However, after a meeting between Brando and Williams, the playwright eagerly agreed that Brando would make an ideal Stanley. Williams believed that by casting a younger actor, the Neanderthalish Kowalski would evolve from being a vicious older man to someone whose unintentional cruelty can be attributed to his youthful ignorance. Brando ultimately was dissatisfied with his performance, though, saying he never was able to bring out the humor of the character, which was ironic as his characterization often drew laughs from the audience at the expense of Jessica Tandy's Blanche Dubois. During the out-of-town tryouts, Kazan realized that Brando's magnetism was attracting attention and audience sympathy away from Blanche to Stanley, which was not what the playwright intended. The audience's sympathy should be solely with Blanche, but many spectators were identifying with Stanley. Kazan queried Williams on the matter, broaching the idea of a slight rewrite to tip the scales back to more of a balance between Stanley and Blanche, but Williams demurred, smitten as he was by Brando, just like the preview audiences.For his part, Brando believed that the audience sided with his Stanley because Jessica Tandy was too shrill. He thought Vivien Leigh, who played the part in the movie, was ideal, as she was not only a great beauty but she WAS Blanche Dubois, troubled as she was in her real life by mental illness and nymphomania. Brando's appearance as Stanley on stage and on screen revolutionized American acting by introducing "The Method" into American consciousness and culture. Method acting, rooted in Adler's study at the Moscow Art Theatre of Stanislavsky's theories that she subsequently introduced to the Group Theatre, was a more naturalistic style of performing, as it engendered a close identification of the actor with the character's emotions. Adler took first place among Brando's acting teachers, and socially she helped turn him from an unsophisticated Midwestern farm boy into a knowledgeable and cosmopolitan artist who one day would socialize with presidents.Brando didn't like the term "The Method," which quickly became the prominent paradigm taught by such acting gurus as Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Brando denounced Strasberg in his autobiography "Songs My Mother Taught Me" (1994), saying that he was a talentless exploiter who claimed he had been Brando's mentor. The Actors Studio had been founded by Strasberg along with Kazan and Stella Adler's husband, Harold Clurman, all Group Theatre alumni, all political progressives deeply committed to the didactic function of the stage. Brando credits his knowledge of the craft to Adler and Kazan, while Kazan in his autobiography "A Life" claimed that Brando's genius thrived due to the thorough training Adler had given him. Adler's method emphasized that authenticity in acting is achieved by drawing on inner reality to expose deep emotional experienceInterestingly, Elia Kazan believed that Brando had ruined two generations of actors, his contemporaries and those who came after him, all wanting to emulate the great Brando by employing The Method. Kazan felt that Brando was never a Method actor, that he had been highly trained by Adler and did not rely on gut instincts for his performances, as was commonly believed. Many a young actor, mistaken about the true roots of Brando's genius, thought that all it took was to find a character's motivation, empathize with the character through sense and memory association, and regurgitate it all on stage to become the character. That's not how the superbly trained Brando did it; he could, for example, play accents, whereas your average American Method actor could not. There was a method to Brando's art, Kazan felt, but it was not The Method.After A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), for which he received the first of his eight Academy Award nominations, Brando appeared in a string of Academy Award-nominated performances - in Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953) and the summit of his early career, Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954). For his "Waterfront" portrayal of meat-headed longshoreman Terry Malloy, the washed-up pug who "coulda been a contender," Brando won his first Oscar. Along with his iconic performance as the rebel-without-a-cause Johnny in The Wild One (1953) ("What are you rebelling against?" Johnny is asked. "What have ya got?" is his reply), the first wave of his career was, according to Jon Voight, unprecedented in its audacious presentation of such a wide range of great acting. Director John Huston said his performance of Marc Antony was like seeing the door of a furnace opened in a dark room, and co-star John Gielgud, the premier Shakespearean actor of the 20th century, invited Brando to join his repertory company.It was this period of 1951-54 that revolutionized American acting, spawning such imitators as James Dean - who modeled his acting and even his lifestyle on his hero Brando - the young Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. After Brando, every up-and-coming star with true acting talent and a brooding, alienated quality would be hailed as the "New Brando," such as Warren Beatty in Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (1961). "We are all Brando's children," Jack Nicholson pointed out in 1972. "He gave us our freedom." He was truly "The Godfather" of American acting - and he was just 30 years old. Though he had a couple of failures, like Désirée (1954) and The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956), he was clearly miscast in them and hadn't sought out the parts so largely escaped blame.In the second period of his career, 1955-62, Brando managed to uniquely establish himself as a great actor who also was a Top 10 movie star, although that star began to dim after the box-office high point of his early career, Sayonara (1957) (for which he received his fifth Best Actor Oscar nomination). Brando tried his hand at directing a film, the well-reviewed One-Eyed Jacks (1961) that he made for his own production company, Pennebaker Productions (after his mother's maiden name). Stanley Kubrick had been hired to direct the film, but after months of script rewrites in which Brando participated, Kubrick and Brando had a falling out and Kubrick was sacked. According to his widow Christiane Kubrick, Stanley believed that Brando had wanted to direct the film himself all along.Tales proliferated about the profligacy of Brando the director, burning up a million and a half feet of expensive VistaVision film at 50 cents a foot, fully ten times the normal amount of raw stock expended during production of an equivalent motion picture. Brando took so long editing the film that he was never able to present the studio with a cut. Paramount took it away from him and tacked on a re-shot ending that Brando was dissatisfied with, as it made the Oedipal figure of Dad Longworth into a villain. In any normal film Dad would have been the heavy, but Brando believed that no one was innately evil, that it was a matter of an individual responding to, and being molded by, one's environment. It was not a black-and-white world, Brando felt, but a gray world in which once-decent people could do horrible things. This attitude explains his sympathetic portrayal of Nazi officer Christian Diestl in the film he made before shooting One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Edward Dmytryk's filming of Irwin Shaw's novel The Young Lions (1958). Shaw denounced Brando's performance, but audiences obviously disagreed, as the film was a major hit. It would be the last hit movie Brando would have for more than a decade.One-Eyed Jacks (1961) generated respectable numbers at the box office, but the production costs were exorbitant - a then-staggering $6 million - which made it run a deficit. A film essentially is "made" in the editing room, and Brando found cutting to be a terribly boring process, which was why the studio eventually took the film away from him. Despite his proved talent in handling actors and a large production, Brando never again directed another film, though he would claim that all actors essentially direct themselves during the shooting of a picture.Between the production and release of One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Brando appeared in Sidney Lumet's film version of Tennessee Williams' play "Orpheus Descending", The Fugitive Kind (1960) which teamed him with fellow Oscar winners Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward. Following in Elizabeth Taylor's trailblazing footsteps, Brando became the second performer to receive a $1-million salary for a motion picture, so high were the expectations for this re-teaming of Kowalski and his creator (in 1961 critic Hollis Alpert had published a book "Brando and the Shadow of Stanley Kowalski). Critics and audiences waiting for another incendiary display from Brando in a Williams work were disappointed when the renamed The Fugitive Kind (1960) finally released. Though Tennessee was hot, with movie versions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) burning up the box office and receiving kudos from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, The Fugitive Kind (1960) was a failure. This was followed by the so-so box-office reception of One-Eyed Jacks (1961) in 1961 and then by a failure of a more monumental kind: Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), a remake of the famed 1935 film.Brando signed on to Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) after turning down the lead in the David Lean classic Lawrence of Arabia (1962) because he didn't want to spend a year in the desert riding around on a camel. He received another $1-million salary, plus $200,000 in overages as the shoot went overtime and over budget. During principal photography, highly respected director Carol Reed (an eventual Academy Award winner) was fired, and his replacement, two-time Oscar winner Lewis Milestone, was shunted aside by Brando as Marlon basically took over the direction of the film himself. The long shoot became so notorious that President John F. Kennedy asked director Billy Wilder at a cocktail party not "when" but "if" the "Bounty" shoot would ever be over. The MGM remake of one of its classic Golden Age films garnered a Best Picture Oscar nomination and was one of the top grossing films of 1962, yet failed to go into the black due to its Brobdingnagian budget estimated at $20 million, which is equivalent to $120 million when adjusted for inflation.Brando and Taylor, whose Cleopatra (1963) nearly bankrupted 20th Century-Fox due to its huge cost overruns (its final budget was more than twice that of Brando's Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)), were pilloried by the show business press for being the epitome of the pampered, self-indulgent stars who were ruining the industry. Seeking scapegoats, the Hollywood press conveniently ignored the financial pressures on the studios. The studios had been hurt by television and by the antitrust-mandated divestiture of their movie theater chains, causing a large outflow of production to Italy and other countries in the 1950s and 1960s in order to lower costs. The studio bosses, seeking to replicate such blockbuster hits as the remakes of The Ten Commandments (1956) and Ben-Hur (1959), were the real culprits behind the losses generated by large-budgeted films that found it impossible to recoup their costs despite long lines at the box office.While Elizabeth Taylor, receiving the unwanted gift of reams of publicity from her adulterous romance with Cleopatra (1963) co-star Richard Burton, remained hot until the tanking of her own Tennessee Williams-renamed debacle Boom (1968), Brando from 1963 until the end of the decade appeared in one box-office failure after another as he worked out a contract he had signed with Universal Pictures. The industry had grown tired of Brando and his idiosyncrasies, though he continued to be offered prestige projects up through 1968.Some of the films Brando made in the 1960s were noble failures, such as The Ugly American (1963), The Appaloosa (1966) and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). For every "Reflections," though, there seemed to be two or three outright debacles, such as Bedtime Story (1964), Morituri (1965), The Chase (1966), A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), Candy (1968), The Night of the Following Day (1968). By the time Brando began making the anti-colonialist picture Queimada (1969) in Colombia with Gillo Pontecorvo in the director's chair, he was box-office poison, despite having worked in the previous five years with such top directors as Arthur Penn, John Huston and the legendary Charles Chaplin, and with such top-drawer co-stars as David Niven, Yul Brynner, Sophia Loren and Taylor.The rap on Brando in the 1960s was that a great talent had ruined his potential to be America's answer to Laurence Olivier, as his friend William Redfield limned the dilemma in his book "Letters from an Actor" (1967), a memoir about Redfield's appearance in Burton's 1964 theatrical production of "Hamlet." By failing to go back on stage and recharge his artistic batteries, something British actors such as Burton were not afraid to do, Brando had stifled his great talent, by refusing to tackle the classical repertoire and contemporary drama. Actors and critics had yearned for an American response to the high-acting style of the Brits, and while Method actors such as Rod Steiger tried to create an American style, they were hampered in their quest, as their king was lost in a wasteland of Hollywood movies that were beneath his talent. Many of his early supporters now turned on him, claiming he was a crass sellout.Despite evidence in such films as The Appaloosa (1966) and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) that Brando was in fact doing some of the best acting of his life, critics, perhaps with an eye on the box office, slammed him for failing to live up to, and nurture, his great gift. Brando's political activism, starting in the early 1960s with his championing of Native Americans' rights, followed by his participation in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's March on Washington in 1963, and followed by his appearance at a Black Panther rally in 1968, did not win him many admirers in the establishment. In fact, there was a de facto embargo on Brando films in the recently segregated (officially, at least) southeastern US in the 1960s. Southern exhibitors simply would not book his films, and producers took notice. After 1968, Brando would not work for three years.Pauline Kael wrote of Brando that he was Fortune's fool. She drew a parallel with the latter career of John Barrymore, a similarly gifted thespian with talents as prodigious, who seemingly threw them away. Brando, like the late-career Barrymore, had become a great ham, evidenced by his turn as the faux Indian guru in the egregious Candy (1968), seemingly because the material was so beneath his talent. Most observers of Brando in the 1960s believed that he needed to be reunited with his old mentor Elia Kazan, a relationship that had soured due to Kazan's friendly testimony naming names before the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee. Perhaps Brando believed this, too, as he originally accepted an offer to appear as the star of Kazan's film adaptation of his own novel, The Arrangement (1969). However, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Brando backed out of the film, telling Kazan that he could not appear in a Hollywood film after this tragedy. Also reportedly turning down a role opposite box-office king Paul Newman in a surefire script, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Brando decided to make Queimada (1969) with Pontecorvo. The film, a searing indictment of racism and colonialism, flopped at the box office but won the esteem of progressive critics and cultural arbiters such as Howard Zinn. He subsequently appeared in the British film The Nightcomers (1971), a prequel to "Turn of the Screw" and another critical and box office failure.Kazan, after a life in film and the theater, said that, aside from Orson Welles, whose greatness lay in filmmaking, he only met one actor who was a genius: Brando. Richard Burton, an intellectual with a keen eye for observation if not for his own film projects, said that he found Brando to be very bright, unlike the public perception of him as a Terry Malloy-type character that he himself inadvertently promoted through his boorish behavior. Brando's problem, Burton felt, was that he was unique, and that he had gotten too much fame too soon at too early an age. Cut off from being nurtured by normal contact with society, fame had distorted Brando's personality and his ability to cope with the world, as he had not had time to grow up outside the limelight.Truman Capote, who eviscerated Brando in print in the mid-'50s and had as much to do with the public perception of the dyslexic Brando as a dumbbell, always said that the best actors were ignorant, and that an intelligent person could not be a good actor. However, Brando was highly intelligent, and possessed of a rare genius in a then-deprecated art, acting. The problem that an intelligent performer has in movies is that it is the director, and not the actor, who has the power in his chosen field. Greatness in the other arts is defined by how much control the artist is able to exert over his chosen medium, but in movie acting, the medium is controlled by a person outside the individual artist. It is an axiom of the cinema that a performance, as is a film, is "created" in the cutting room, thus further removing the actor from control over his art. Brando had tried his hand at directing, in controlling the whole artistic enterprise, but he could not abide the cutting room, where a film and the film's performances are made. This lack of control over his art was the root of Brando's discontent with acting, with movies, and, eventually, with the whole wide world that invested so much cachet in movie actors, as long as "they" were at the top of the box-office charts. Hollywood was a matter of "they" and not the work, and Brando became disgusted.Charlton Heston, who participated in Martin Luther King's 1963 March on Washington with Brando, believes that Marlon was the great actor of his generation. However, noting a story that Brando had once refused a role in the early 1960s with the excuse "How can I act when people are starving in India?", Heston believes that it was this attitude, the inability to separate one's idealism from one's work, that prevented Brando from reaching his potential. As Rod Steiger once said, Brando had it all, great stardom and a great talent. He could have taken his audience on a trip to the stars, but he simply would not. Steiger, one of Brando's children even though a contemporary, could not understand it. When James Mason' was asked in 1971 who was the best American actor, he had replied that since Brando had let his career go belly-up, it had to be George C. Scott, by default.Paramount thought that only Laurence Olivier would suffice, but Lord Olivier was ill. The young director believed there was only one actor who could play godfather to the group of Young Turk actors he had assembled for his film, The Godfather of method acting himself - Marlon Brando. Francis Ford Coppola won the fight for Brando, Brando won - and refused - his second Oscar, and Paramount won a pot of gold by producing the then top-grossing film of all-time, The Godfather (1972), a gangster movie most critics now judge one of the greatest American films of all time. Brando followed his iconic portrayal of Don Corleone with his Oscar-nominated turn in the high-grossing and highly scandalous Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) ("Last Tango in Paris"), the first film dealing explicitly with sexuality in which an actor of Brando's stature had participated. He was now again a Top-Ten box office star and once again heralded as the greatest actor of his generation, an unprecedented comeback that put him on the cover of "Time" magazine and would make him the highest-paid actor in the history of motion pictures by the end of the decade. Little did the world know that Brando, who had struggled through many projects in good faith during the 1960s, delivering some of his best acting, only to be excoriated and ignored as the films did not do well at the box office, essentially was through with the movies.After reaching the summit of his career, a rarefied atmosphere never reached before or since by any actor, Brando essentially walked away. He would give no more of himself after giving everything as he had done in Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)", a performance that embarrassed him, according to his autobiography. Brando had come as close to any actor to being the "auteur," or author, of a film, as the English-language scenes of "Tango" were created by encouraging Brando to improvise. The improvisations were written down and turned into a shooting script, and the scripted improvisations were shot the next day. Pauline Kael, the Brando of movie critics in that she was the most influential arbiter of cinematic quality of her generation and spawned a whole legion of Kael wanna-bes, said Brando's performance in Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) had revolutionized the art of film. Brando, who had to act to gain his mother's attention; Brando, who believed acting at best was nothing special as everyone in the world engaged in it every day of their lives to get what they wanted from other people; Brando, who believed acting at its worst was a childish charade and that movie stardom was a whorish fraud, would have agreed with Sam Peckinpah's summation of Pauline Kael: "Pauline's a brilliant critic but sometimes she's just cracking walnuts with her ass." Probably in a simulacrum of those words, too.After another three-year hiatus, Brando took on just one more major role for the next 20 years, as the bounty hunter after Jack Nicholson in Arthur Penn's The Missouri Breaks (1976), a western that succeeded neither with the critics or at the box office. Following The Godfather and Tango, Brando's performance was disappointing for some reviewers, who accused him of giving an erratic and inconsistent performance. In 1977, Brando made a rare appearance on television in the miniseries Roots: The Next Generations (1979), portraying George Lincoln Rockwell; he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance. In 1978, he narrated the English version of Raoni (1978), a French-Belgian documentary film directed by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux and Luiz Carlos Saldanha that focused on the life of Raoni Metuktire and issues surrounding the survival of the indigenous Indian tribes of north central Brazil.Later in his career, Brando concentrated on extracting the maximum amount of capital for the least amount of work from producers, as when he got the Salkind brothers to pony up a then-record $3.7 million against 10% of the gross for 13 days work on Superman (1978). Factoring in inflation, the straight salary for "Superman" equals or exceeds the new record of $1 million a day Harrison Ford set with K-19: The Widowmaker (2002). He agreed to the role only on assurance that he would be paid a large sum for what amounted to a small part, that he would not have to read the script beforehand, and his lines would be displayed somewhere off-camera. Brando also filmed scenes for the movie's sequel, Superman II, but after producers refused to pay him the same percentage he received for the first movie, he denied them permission to use the footage.Before cashing his first paycheck for Superman (1978), Brando had picked up $2 million for his extended cameo in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) in a role, that of Col. Kurtz, that he authored on-camera through improvisation while Coppola shot take after take. It was Brando's last bravura star performance. He co-starred with George C. Scott and John Gielgud in The Formula (1980), but the film was another critical and financial failure. Years later though, he did receive an eighth and final Oscar nomination for his supporting role in A Dry White Season (1989) after coming out of a near-decade-long retirement. Contrary to those who claimed he now only was in it for the money, Brando donated his entire seven-figure salary to an anti-apartheid charity. He then did an amusing performance in the comedy The Freshman (1990), winning rave reviews. He portrayed Tomas de Torquemada in the historical drama 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), but his performance was denounced and the film was another box office failure. He made another comeback in the Johnny Depp romantic drama Don Juan DeMarco (1994), which co-starred Faye Dunaway as his wife. He then appeared in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), co-starring Val Kilmer, who he didn't get along with. The filming was an unpleasant experience for Brando, as well as another critical and box office failure.Brando had first attracted media attention at the age of 24, when "Life" magazine ran a photo of himself and his sister Jocelyn, who were both then appearing on Broadway. The curiosity continued, and snowballed. Playing the paraplegic soldier of The Men (1950), Brando had gone to live at a Veterans Administration hospital with actual disabled veterans, and confined himself to a wheelchair for weeks. It was an acting method, research, that no one in Hollywood had ever heard of before, and that willingness to experience life. Hide

If the vacuum formed by Dr. [Martin Luther King's] death isn't filled with concern and understanding Show more If the vacuum formed by Dr. [Martin Luther King's] death isn't filled with concern and understanding and a measure of love, then I think we all are really going to be lost here in this country. Hide

I don't think any movie is a work of art. I don't think any movie is a work of art.

This is a false world. It's been a struggle to try to preserve my sanity and sense of reality taken Show more This is a false world. It's been a struggle to try to preserve my sanity and sense of reality taken away by success. I have to fight hard to preserve that sense of reality so as to bring up my children. Hide

At Paramount, I sat at lunch with John Wayne. I couldn't even talk. At Paramount, I sat at lunch with John Wayne. I couldn't even talk.

Acting is an illusion, a form of histrionic slight of hand, and in order to carry it off, an actor m Show more Acting is an illusion, a form of histrionic slight of hand, and in order to carry it off, an actor must have intense concentration. Before I go into a scene, I study it, almost psychoanalyze it. Then I discuss it with the director and then rehearse it. When actual shooting commences, I put in earplugs to screen out the extraneous noises that inevitably prick at one's concentration. Hide

[To his cast and crew on the set of One-Eyed Jacks (1961)] I've got to have clouds, not a clear sky, Show more [To his cast and crew on the set of One-Eyed Jacks (1961)] I've got to have clouds, not a clear sky, before we can go on shooting. Hide

[on acting] I don't put it down. But I resent people putting it up. [on acting] I don't put it down. But I resent people putting it up.

[on Frank Sinatra] He's the kind of guy that when he dies, he's going up to heaven and give God a ba Show more [on Frank Sinatra] He's the kind of guy that when he dies, he's going up to heaven and give God a bad time for making him bald. Hide

I'm just another son-of-a-bitch sitting in a motor home on a film set and they come looking for Zeus Show more I'm just another son-of-a-bitch sitting in a motor home on a film set and they come looking for Zeus. Hide

[observation, 1952] One more film and I will have my pile. My mother and father are taken care of. I Show more [observation, 1952] One more film and I will have my pile. My mother and father are taken care of. I have eight hundred head of cattle on my ranch in Nevada. This [Viva Zapata! (1952)] should soon bring me an income of $80,000 a year. That will be enough. Any acting I do will be on the stage. Hide

Do you remember when Marilyn Monroe died? Everybody stopped work, and you could see all that day the Show more Do you remember when Marilyn Monroe died? Everybody stopped work, and you could see all that day the same expressions on their faces, the same thought: "How can a girl with success, fame, youth, money, beauty... how could she kill herself?" Nobody could understand it because those are the things that everybody wants, and they can't believe that life wasn't important to Marilyn Monroe, or that her life was elsewhere. Hide

Humphrey Bogart played himself in every movie. Clark Gable always played Clark Gable. Humphrey Bogart played himself in every movie. Clark Gable always played Clark Gable.

[on American Indians] When they laid down their arms, we murdered them. We lied to them. We cheated Show more [on American Indians] When they laid down their arms, we murdered them. We lied to them. We cheated them out of their lands. We starved them into signing fraudulent agreements that we called treaties which we never kept. We turned them into beggars on a continent that gave life for as long as life can remember. And by any interpretation of history, however twisted, we did not do right. We were not lawful nor were we just in what we did. For them, we do not have to restore these people, we do not have to live up to some agreements, because it is given to us by virtue of our power to attack the rights of others, to take their property, to take their lives when they are trying to defend their land and liberty, and to make their virtues a crime and our own vices virtues. Hide

[on Al Pacino] I didn't say much to Pacino when we were making The Godfather (1972), but I not only Show more [on Al Pacino] I didn't say much to Pacino when we were making The Godfather (1972), but I not only consider him one of the best actors in America, but in the world. I never meant anything more in my life. Hide

If you're successful, acting is about as soft a job as anybody could ever wish for. But if you're un Show more If you're successful, acting is about as soft a job as anybody could ever wish for. But if you're unsuccessful, it's worse than having a skin disease. Hide

Everyone on a movie deserves an award - not just one person. Everyone on a movie deserves an award - not just one person.

Food has always been my friend. When I wanted to feel better or had a crisis in my life, I opened th Show more Food has always been my friend. When I wanted to feel better or had a crisis in my life, I opened the icebox. Hide

I always enjoyed watching John Wayne, but it never occurred to me until I spoke with Indians how cor Show more I always enjoyed watching John Wayne, but it never occurred to me until I spoke with Indians how corrosive and damaging and destructive his movies were - most Hollywood movies were. Hide

If you have enough money, you can do anything. You can even get a President shot. All you have to do Show more If you have enough money, you can do anything. You can even get a President shot. All you have to do is hire Sam Giancana, Sirhan Sirhan. You can get anybody killed for a can of beer. Hire some dumbo hit man, pay him $50,000. You can hire a 17-year-old kid, he'll be out in the streets in two or three years. Hide

The only reason I'm in Hollywood is that I don't have the moral courage to refuse the money. The only reason I'm in Hollywood is that I don't have the moral courage to refuse the money.

An actor is at most a poet and at least an entertainer. An actor is at most a poet and at least an entertainer.

America has been good to me, but that wasn't a gift. America has been good to me, but that wasn't a gift.

Would people applaud me if I were a good plumber? Would people applaud me if I were a good plumber?

I'm not a film fanatic. If I never saw another movie in my life, it wouldn't bother me. Acting is wh Show more I'm not a film fanatic. If I never saw another movie in my life, it wouldn't bother me. Acting is what I do to make money, but it's certainly not my life-style. Compared to world affairs, to peace conferences, making a movie is absolutely nothing! Hide

Most New York and Beverly Hills psychoanalysts are a little crazy themselves, as well as highly moti Show more Most New York and Beverly Hills psychoanalysts are a little crazy themselves, as well as highly motivated to separate patients from their money while making their emotional problems worse. Hide

When I saw The Godfather (1972) the first time, it made me sick; all I could see were my mistakes an Show more When I saw The Godfather (1972) the first time, it made me sick; all I could see were my mistakes and I hated it. But years later, when I saw it on television from a different perspective, I decided it was a pretty good film. Hide

[on his regret at not appearing in the movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)] I know more ab Show more [on his regret at not appearing in the movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)] I know more about being a homosexual than Paul Newman. It's very clear to me that Tennessee Williams modeled Alexandra Del Lago after Tallulah Bankhead. I surely know how to appear opposite a Tallulah character better than Newman. Hide

Regret is useless in life. It's in the past. All we have is now. Regret is useless in life. It's in the past. All we have is now.

It seems to me hilarious that our government put the face of Elvis Presley on a postage stamp after Show more It seems to me hilarious that our government put the face of Elvis Presley on a postage stamp after he died from an overdose of drugs. His fans don't mention that because they don't want to give up their myths. They ignore the fact that he was a drug addict and claim he invented rock 'n' roll when in fact he took it from black culture; they had been singing that way for years before he came along, copied them and became a star. Hide

[on directing] I did it once. It was an ass-breaker. You work yourself to death. You're the first on Show more [on directing] I did it once. It was an ass-breaker. You work yourself to death. You're the first one up in the morning... I mean, we shot that thing [One-Eyed Jacks (1961)] on the run, you know. You make up the dialog the scene before, improvising, and your brain is going crazy. Hide

A movie that I was in, called On the Waterfront (1954): there was a scene in a taxicab, where I turn Show more A movie that I was in, called On the Waterfront (1954): there was a scene in a taxicab, where I turn to my brother, who's come to turn me over to the gangsters, and I lament to him that he never looked after me, he never gave me a chance, that I could have been a contender, I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum... "You should of looked out after me, Charley." It was very moving. And people often spoke about that, "Oh, my God, what a wonderful scene, Marlon, blah blah blah blah blah." It wasn't wonderful at all. The situation was wonderful. Everybody feels like he could have been a contender, he could have been somebody, everybody feels as though he's partly bum, some part of him. He is not fulfilled and he could have done better, he could have been better. Everybody feels a sense of loss about something. So that was what touched people. It wasn't the scene itself. There are other scenes where you'll find actors being expert, but since the audience can't clearly identify with them, they just pass unnoticed. Wonderful scenes never get mentioned, only those scenes that affect people. Hide

[after accepting the Best Actor Oscar for On the Waterfront (1954) at the 27th Academy Awards ceremo Show more [after accepting the Best Actor Oscar for On the Waterfront (1954) at the 27th Academy Awards ceremony] I can't remember what I was going to say for the life of me. I don't think ever in my life that so many people were so directly responsible for my being so very, very happy. Hide

[on Hollywood] A small-minded little town in the middle of nowhere. [on Hollywood] A small-minded little town in the middle of nowhere.

I don't see anybody as evil. When you start seeing people as evil, you're in trouble. The thing that Show more I don't see anybody as evil. When you start seeing people as evil, you're in trouble. The thing that's going to save us is understanding. The inspection of the mind of Eichmann [Adolf Eichmann] or Himmler [Heinrich Himmler]... Just to dispense with them as evil is not enough, because it doesn't bring you understanding. You have to see them for what they are. You have to examine John Wayne. He's not a bad person. Who among us is going to say he's a bad man? He feels justified for what he does. The damage that he does he doesn't consider damage, he thinks it's an honest presentation of the facts. Hide

With so much prejudice, racial discrimination, injustice, hatred, poverty, starvation and suffering Show more With so much prejudice, racial discrimination, injustice, hatred, poverty, starvation and suffering in the world, making movies seemed increasingly silly and irrelevant. Hide

[on Malcolm X] He was a dynamic person, a very special human being who might have caused a revolutio Show more [on Malcolm X] He was a dynamic person, a very special human being who might have caused a revolution. He had to be done away with. The American government couldn't let him live. If 23 million blacks found a charismatic leader like he was, they would have followed him. The powers that be couldn't accept that. Hide

[on Burt Reynolds] I disagree with the thought process of people like him, who is a totally narcissi Show more [on Burt Reynolds] I disagree with the thought process of people like him, who is a totally narcissistic person who epitomizes everything wrong with being a celebrity in Hollywood. Hide

Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent. Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent.

To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to e Show more To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication. Hide

On The Godfather (1972), I had signs and cue cards everywhere -- on my shirt sleeves, on a watermelo Show more On The Godfather (1972), I had signs and cue cards everywhere -- on my shirt sleeves, on a watermelon and glued to the scenery. Not memorizing lines increased the illusion of reality and spontaneity. Hide

If you've made a hit movie, then you get the full 32-teeth display in some places; and if you've sor Show more If you've made a hit movie, then you get the full 32-teeth display in some places; and if you've sort of faded, they say, "Are you still making movies? I remember that picture, blah blah blah." And so it goes. The point of all this is, people are interested in people who are successful. Hide

I come from a long line of Irish drunks. I come from a long line of Irish drunks.

The good directors that I've worked with will say I'm a good guy. The other fellows will say I'm a b Show more The good directors that I've worked with will say I'm a good guy. The other fellows will say I'm a bad guy. Hide

[on Lily Tomlin] Good God, is she angry. Whew! She gives me the impression of somebody incandescent Show more [on Lily Tomlin] Good God, is she angry. Whew! She gives me the impression of somebody incandescent with rage that comes out in this crinkle-eyed smiling face. Acid. She's funny, but all of her humor comes from anguish, rage and pain. Don Rickles, too. Most humor does. Hide

I bumped into Marilyn Monroe at a party. While other people drank and danced, she sat by herself in Show more I bumped into Marilyn Monroe at a party. While other people drank and danced, she sat by herself in a corner almost unnoticed, playing the piano. Hide

I don't mind that I'm fat. You still get the same money. I don't mind that I'm fat. You still get the same money.

[on the impact of The Godfather (1972)] I'd gotten to know quite a few mafiosi, and all of them told Show more [on the impact of The Godfather (1972)] I'd gotten to know quite a few mafiosi, and all of them told me they loved the picture because I had played the Godfather with dignity. Even today I can't pay a check in Little Italy. Hide

I'm often amused when I read American history and I read what great things America was going to be, Show more I'm often amused when I read American history and I read what great things America was going to be, what great things we were going to produce, the magnificent life we were going to have. We were determined to be an impressive and strong nation that needed a lot of people and a lot of land. And all those people who came: "Give us your great unwashed." Well, we got all the great unwashed there were. From every prison we certainly got a lot of scum and dummies. We didn't get the cream of the crop. We got people from the lowest echelons of society who couldn't make it or weren't happy where they were. Or who were taken from Africa, brought to America in chains and turned into animals. Hide

The Godfather (1972) said that a man with a briefcase can steal more money than a man with a pistol. The Godfather (1972) said that a man with a briefcase can steal more money than a man with a pistol.

Ask most kids about details about Auschwitz or about how the American Indians were assassinated as a Show more Ask most kids about details about Auschwitz or about how the American Indians were assassinated as a people and they don't know anything about it. They don't want to know anything. Most people just want their beer or their soap opera or their lullaby. Hide

[before directing One-Eyed Jacks (1961)] I want to make a frontal assault on the temple of clichés. [before directing One-Eyed Jacks (1961)] I want to make a frontal assault on the temple of clichés.

The more sensitive you are, the more likely you are to be brutalised, develop scabs and never evolve Show more The more sensitive you are, the more likely you are to be brutalised, develop scabs and never evolve. Never allow yourself to feel anything because you always feel too much. Hide

[on Marilyn Monroe] Marilyn was a sensitive, misunderstood person, much more perceptive than was gen Show more [on Marilyn Monroe] Marilyn was a sensitive, misunderstood person, much more perceptive than was generally assumed. She had been beaten down, but had a strong emotional intelligence -- a keen intuition for the feelings of others, the most refined type of intelligence. We had an affair and saw each other intermittently until she died in 1962. It's been speculated that she had a secret rendezvous with [Robert F. Kennedy] that week and was distraught because he wanted to end an affair between them. But she didn't seem depressed to me, and I don't think that if she was sleeping with him at the time she would have invited me over for dinner. I'm sure she didn't commit suicide. I have always believed that she was murdered. Hide

It is a simple fact that all of us use the techniques of acting to achieve whatever ends we seek... Show more It is a simple fact that all of us use the techniques of acting to achieve whatever ends we seek... Acting serves as the quintessential social lubricant and a device for protecting our interests and gaining advantage in every aspect of life. Hide

Mothers feel about their children the way husbands feel about women. It's 'my' kid. Women who are in Show more Mothers feel about their children the way husbands feel about women. It's 'my' kid. Women who are in the women's movement, some of them say they are not their husband's possession, but then they'll unconsciously refer to their child as a possession. They use the same kind of language about their children as they would hate for their husbands to use about them. Hide

[on the Academy Awards, Connie Chung TV interview, 1990] What do I care? I've made all the money I n Show more [on the Academy Awards, Connie Chung TV interview, 1990] What do I care? I've made all the money I need to make. I won a couple of Academy Awards if I ever cared about that. I've been nominated I don't know how many times and I'm in a position of respect and standing in my craft as an actor in this country. So what the hell, I don't need to gild the lily. Hide

[after directing One-Eyed Jacks (1961)] I don't feel it's what I set out to do. In my film, everybod Show more [after directing One-Eyed Jacks (1961)] I don't feel it's what I set out to do. In my film, everybody lied, even the girl. The only one who told the truth was the Karl Malden character. Paramount made him out to be the heavy, a liar. Now the characters in the film are black and white, not gray and human as I planned them. Hide

Three or four times, I've pulled a gun on somebody. I had a problem after Charles Manson, deciding t Show more Three or four times, I've pulled a gun on somebody. I had a problem after Charles Manson, deciding to get a gun. But I didn't want somebody coming in my house and committing mayhem. The Hillside Strangler victims - one of the girls was found in back of my Los Angeles house. My next-door neighbor was murdered, strangled in the bathroom. Mulholland Drive is full of crazy people. We have nuts coming up and down all the time. Hide

I think Robert F. Kennedy really, finally, cared; he realized that all of the rhetoric had to be put Show more I think Robert F. Kennedy really, finally, cared; he realized that all of the rhetoric had to be put down into some form of action. That's perhaps the reason they killed him. They don't care what you say, you can say as much as you want to, provided you don't do anything. If you start to do something and your shuffling raises too much dust, they will disestablish you. That's what happened to Martin Luther King. Hide

[1976] Homosexuality is so much in fashion it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, t Show more [1976] Homosexuality is so much in fashion it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences and I am not ashamed. I have never paid much attention to what people think about me. But if there is someone who is convinced that Jack Nicholson and I are lovers, may they continue to do so. I find it amusing. Hide

You're not going to call The Rolling Stones artists. I heard somebody compare them - or The Beatles Show more You're not going to call The Rolling Stones artists. I heard somebody compare them - or The Beatles - to Bach [Johann Sebastian Bach]. It was claimed they had created something as memorable and as important as Bach, Haydn [Joseph Haydn], Mozart [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart] and Schubert [Franz Schubert]. I hate rock 'n' roll. It's ugly. I liked it when the blacks had it in 1927. Hide

[on Hollywood] A cultural boneyard. [on Hollywood] A cultural boneyard.

Most people want those fantasies of those who are worthy of our hate - we get rid of a lot of anger Show more Most people want those fantasies of those who are worthy of our hate - we get rid of a lot of anger that way; and of those who are worthy of our idolatry. Whether it's Farrah Fawcett or somebody else, it doesn't make a difference. They're easily replaceable units, pick 'em out like a card file. Johnnie Ray enjoyed that kind of hysterical popularity, celebration, and then suddenly he wasn't there anymore. The Beatles are now nobody in particular. Once they set screaming crowds running after them, they ran in fear of their lives, they had special tunnels for them. They can walk almost anyplace now. Because the fantasy is gone. Elvis Presley - bloated, over the hill, adolescent entertainer, suddenly drawing people into Las Vegas - had nothing to do with excellence, just myth. It's convenient for people to believe that something is wonderful, therefore they're wonderful. Hide

[when asked how he spent his time away from the camera] People ask that a lot. They say, "What did y Show more [when asked how he spent his time away from the camera] People ask that a lot. They say, "What did you do while you took time out?", as if the rest of my life is taking time out. But the fact is, making movies is time out for me because the rest, the nearly complete whole, is what's real for me. I'm not an actor and haven't been for years. I'm a human being - hopefully a concerned and somewhat intelligent one - who occasionally acts. Hide

I don't know what people expect when they meet me. They seem to be afraid that I'm going to piss in Show more I don't know what people expect when they meet me. They seem to be afraid that I'm going to piss in the potted palm and slap them on the ass. Hide

[To Bernardo Bertolucci about his role in Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)] Never again will I make a fi Show more [To Bernardo Bertolucci about his role in Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)] Never again will I make a film like this one. For the first time, I have felt a violation of my innermost self. It should be the last time. Hide

Regrets belong to the past. Regrets belong to the past.

Even today, I meet people who think of me automatically as a tough, insensitive, coarse guy named St Show more Even today, I meet people who think of me automatically as a tough, insensitive, coarse guy named Stanley Kowalski. They can't help it, but it is troubling. Hide

Privacy is not something that I'm merely entitled to, it's an absolute prerequisite. Privacy is not something that I'm merely entitled to, it's an absolute prerequisite.

If you want something from an audience, you give blood to their fantasies. It's the ultimate hustle. If you want something from an audience, you give blood to their fantasies. It's the ultimate hustle.

[on Charles Chaplin] A remarkable talent but a monster of a man. [on Charles Chaplin] A remarkable talent but a monster of a man.

[on claims he defamed Italian-Americans with his portrayal of The Godfather (1972)] I played an Iris Show more [on claims he defamed Italian-Americans with his portrayal of The Godfather (1972)] I played an Irishman who was a freak psychopath (in The Nightcomers (1971)) and I didn't get any letters from any Irish-American organizations. It would have been difficult to make The Godfather (1972) with an eighth Chinese, a quarter Russian, a quarter Irish and an eighth Hispanic. Very difficult to take those people to Sicily and call them O'Houlihan. Hide

A prostitute can give you all kinds of wonderful excitement and inspiration and make you think that Show more A prostitute can give you all kinds of wonderful excitement and inspiration and make you think that nirvana has arrived on the two-o'clock plane, and it ain't necessarily so. Hide

[on the taxi cab scene in On the Waterfront (1954)] People often spoke about that, "Oh, my God, what Show more [on the taxi cab scene in On the Waterfront (1954)] People often spoke about that, "Oh, my God, what a wonderful scene, Marlon, blah blah blah blah blah." It wasn't wonderful at all. The situation was wonderful. Everybody feels like he could have been a contender, he could have been somebody, everybody feels as though he's partly bum, some part of him. He is not fulfilled and he could have done better, he could have been better. Everybody feels a sense of loss about something. So that was what touched people. It wasn't the scene itself. Hide

Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It's a bum's life. Quitting acting is a sign of matu Show more Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It's a bum's life. Quitting acting is a sign of maturity. Hide

[on John Wayne's 1971 interview with Playboy magazine] That doesn't need a reply, it's self-evident. Show more [on John Wayne's 1971 interview with Playboy magazine] That doesn't need a reply, it's self-evident. You can't even get mad at it; it's so insane that there's just nothing to say about it. He would be, according to his point of view, someone not disposed to returning any of the colonial possessions in Africa or Asia to their rightful owners. He would be sharing a perspective with B.J. Vorster if he were in South Africa. He would be on the side of Ian Smith. He would have shot down Gandhi [Mohandas K. Gandhi], called him a rabble rouser. The only freedom fighters he would recognize would be those who were fighting Communists; if they were fighting to get out from under colonial rule, he'd call them terrorists. The Indians today he'd call agitators, terrorists, who knows? If John Wayne ran for President, he would get a great following... I think he's been enormously instrumental in perpetuating this view of the Indian as a savage, ferocious, destructive force. He's made us believe things about the Indian that were never true and perpetuated the myth about how wonderful the frontiersmen were and how decent and honorable we all were. Hide

Everybody ought not to turn his back on the phenomenon of hatred in whatever form it takes. We have Show more Everybody ought not to turn his back on the phenomenon of hatred in whatever form it takes. We have to find out what the anatomy of hatred is before we can understand it. We have to make some attempt to put it into some understandable form. Any kind of group hatred is extremely dangerous and much more volatile than individual hatred. Heinous crimes are committed by groups and it's all done, of course, in the name of right, justice. It's John Wayne. It's the way he thinks. All the crimes committed against Indians are not considered crimes by John Wayne. Hide

[on the Academy Awards, to Connie Chung after his Best Supporting Actor nomination for A Dry White S Show more [on the Academy Awards, to Connie Chung after his Best Supporting Actor nomination for A Dry White Season (1989)] That's a part of the sickness in America, that you have to think in terms of who wins, who loses, who's good, who's bad, who's best, who's worst... I don't like to think that way. Everybody has their own value in different ways, and I don't like to think who's the best at this. I mean, what's the point of it? Hide

I don't think it's the nature of any man to be monogamous. Men are propelled by genetically ordained Show more I don't think it's the nature of any man to be monogamous. Men are propelled by genetically ordained impulses over which they have no control to distribute their seed. Hide

If given the choice between Kenneth Branagh's production of Henry V (1989) or Arnold Schwarzenegger' Show more If given the choice between Kenneth Branagh's production of Henry V (1989) or Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Terminator (1984), there's hardly a question of where most television dials would be turned. If the expenditure of money for entertainment in America is any indication of taste, clearly the majority of us are addicted to trash. Hide

A lot of the old movie stars couldn't act their way out of a box of wet tissue paper, but they were Show more A lot of the old movie stars couldn't act their way out of a box of wet tissue paper, but they were successful because they had distinctive personalities. They were predictable brands of breakfast cereal: on Wednesdays we had Quaker Oats and Gary Cooper; on Fridays we had Wheaties and Clark Gable. They were off-the-shelf products you expected always to be the same, actors and actresses with likable personalities who played themselves more or less the same role the same way every time out. Hide

The most repulsive thing you could ever imagine is the inside of a camel's mouth. That and watching Show more The most repulsive thing you could ever imagine is the inside of a camel's mouth. That and watching a girl eat octopus or squid. Hide

Bob Hope will go to the opening of a phone booth in a gas station in Anaheim, provided they have a c Show more Bob Hope will go to the opening of a phone booth in a gas station in Anaheim, provided they have a camera and three people there. He'll go to the opening of a market and receive an award. Get an award from Thom McAn for wearing their shoes. It's pathetic. It's a bottomless pit. A barrel that has no floor. He must be a man who has an ever-crumbling estimation of himself. He's constantly filling himself up. He's like a junkie -- an applause junkie, like Sammy Davis Jr.. Sammy desperately longs to be loved, approved of. He's very talented. Hide

[on Cheyenne Autumn (1964)] That was worse than any other film, because it didn't tell the truth. Su Show more [on Cheyenne Autumn (1964)] That was worse than any other film, because it didn't tell the truth. Superduper patriots like John Ford could never say that the American government was at fault. He made the evil cavalry captain a foreigner. John Ford had him speak with a thick accent, you didn't know what he was, but you knew he didn't represent Mom's apple pie. Hide

I know it can be hard for a troubled kid like James Dean to have to live up to sudden fame and the b Show more I know it can be hard for a troubled kid like James Dean to have to live up to sudden fame and the ballyhoo Hollywood created around him. I saw it happen to Marilyn Monroe and I also knew it from my own experience. In trying to copy me, I think Jimmy was only attempting to deal with these insecurities, but I told him it was a mistake. Hide

[To his cast on the set of One-Eyed Jacks (1961)] I don't know how this film is going to end. But I Show more [To his cast on the set of One-Eyed Jacks (1961)] I don't know how this film is going to end. But I want a scene where someone gets shot in the back. Who wants to be the shooter? Who wants to be the shootee? Hide

[on his refusal to talk about Marilyn Monroe's death] It's disemboweling a ghost. [on his refusal to talk about Marilyn Monroe's death] It's disemboweling a ghost.

I just don't believe in washing my dirty underwear for all to see, and I'm not interested in the con Show more I just don't believe in washing my dirty underwear for all to see, and I'm not interested in the confessions of movie stars. Hide

News is business. And, uh, people sell news, and unfortunately people in my position are in the publ Show more News is business. And, uh, people sell news, and unfortunately people in my position are in the public eye, are sellable commodities, but they're not any different than Kleenex or Dial Soap or anything else. And uh, so if we find something out that's about your sex life, or something you do with your fingernails after you cut them off, if you smoke the grime from your navel, then... then... that's big news. That's important... But anyway, it doesn't matter. Because, finally, you know... I've found that people really don't believe all the nonsense they read. And they look at you when they meet you, and wonder if it's true, but they finally make a decision based on what their experience with you personally is. Hide

I too have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed. I'd never paid much attention to what p Show more I too have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed. I'd never paid much attention to what people think about me. Deep down, I feel a bit ambiguous. Hide

George Bernard Shaw said that thinking was the greatest of all human endeavors, but I would say that Show more George Bernard Shaw said that thinking was the greatest of all human endeavors, but I would say that feeling was. Allowing yourself to feel things, to feel love or wrath, hatred, rage. Hide

I liked High Anxiety (1977). Mel Brooks makes me laugh. They had a Laurel and Hardy festival on tele Show more I liked High Anxiety (1977). Mel Brooks makes me laugh. They had a Laurel and Hardy festival on television; boy, I laughed at that. It went on all night long; I was up half the night laughing. Hide

We've somehow substituted craft for art and cleverness for craft. It's revolting! It's disgusting th Show more We've somehow substituted craft for art and cleverness for craft. It's revolting! It's disgusting that people talk about art and they haven't got the right to use the word. It doesn't belong on anybody's tongue in this century. There are no artists. We are businessmen. We're merchants. There is no art. Pablo Picasso was the last one I would call an artist. Hide

If Wally [Wally Cox] had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever Show more If Wally [Wally Cox] had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after. Hide

An actor's a guy who, if you ain't talking about him, ain't listening. An actor's a guy who, if you ain't talking about him, ain't listening.

If an actor can't improvise, then perhaps the producer's wife cast him in that part. You wouldn't be Show more If an actor can't improvise, then perhaps the producer's wife cast him in that part. You wouldn't be in the film with such a person. Some actors don't like it. Laurence Olivier doesn't like to improvise; everything is structured and his roles are all according to an almost architectural plan. Hide

I have eyes like those of a dead pig. I have eyes like those of a dead pig.

[on his unforgettable role as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972)] I went home and did some re Show more [on his unforgettable role as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972)] I went home and did some rehearsing to satisfy my curiosity about whether I could play an Italian. I put on some makeup, stuffed Kleenex in my cheeks and worked out the characterization first in front of a mirror, then on a television monitor. After working on it, I decided I could create a characterization that would support the story. The people at Paramount saw the footage and liked it, and that's how I became the Godfather. Hide

[on Dustin Hoffman] I believe that he has talent. He ought to get away from this rather nervous char Show more [on Dustin Hoffman] I believe that he has talent. He ought to get away from this rather nervous character that he's played since Midnight Cowboy (1969). Then we'd really be able to see that he's a complete actor. Hide

With women, I've got a long bamboo pole with a leather loop on the end. I slip the loop around their Show more With women, I've got a long bamboo pole with a leather loop on the end. I slip the loop around their necks so they can't get away or come too close. Like catching snakes. Hide

[on Lee Strasberg] An ambitious, selfish man who exploited the people who attended the Actors Studio Show more [on Lee Strasberg] An ambitious, selfish man who exploited the people who attended the Actors Studio, and he tried to project himself as an acting oracle and guru. Some people worshipped him, but I never knew why. Hide

[on working with David Niven on Bedtime Story (1964)] Working with David was the only time I ever lo Show more [on working with David Niven on Bedtime Story (1964)] Working with David was the only time I ever looked forward to filming. I just couldn't wait to wake up each morning and go to work so he could make me laugh. Hide

[on Charles Chaplin] Chaplin you got to go with. Chaplin is a man whose talents is such that you hav Show more [on Charles Chaplin] Chaplin you got to go with. Chaplin is a man whose talents is such that you have to gamble. First off, comedy is his backyard. He's a genius, a cinematic genius. A comedic talent without peer. Hide

I'm not going to lay myself at the feet of the American public and invite them into my soul. My soul Show more I'm not going to lay myself at the feet of the American public and invite them into my soul. My soul is a private place. And I have some resentment of the fact that I live in a system where you have to do that. Hide

[on his characterization of Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954)] [The role] was actor-proof, a Show more [on his characterization of Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954)] [The role] was actor-proof, a scene that demonstrated how audiences often do much of the acting themselves in an effectively told story. Hide

Mao Tse-tung was the last giant. Mao Tse-tung was the last giant.

I don't want to spread the peanut butter of my personality on the mouldy bread of the commercial pre Show more I don't want to spread the peanut butter of my personality on the mouldy bread of the commercial press. Hide

I'm one of those people who believes that if I'm very good in this life I'll go to France when I die Show more I'm one of those people who believes that if I'm very good in this life I'll go to France when I die. Hide

[on one of his most famous characters, Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)] Kowals Show more [on one of his most famous characters, Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)] Kowalski was always right, and never afraid. He never wondered, he never doubted. His ego was very secure. And he had the kind of brutal aggressiveness that I hate. I'm afraid of it. I detest the character. Hide

I hated authority and did everything I could to defeat it by resisting it, subverting it, tricking i Show more I hated authority and did everything I could to defeat it by resisting it, subverting it, tricking it and outmaneuvering it. I would do anything to avoid being treated like a cipher. Hide

If I hadn't been an actor, I've often thought I'd have become a con man and wound up in jail. If I hadn't been an actor, I've often thought I'd have become a con man and wound up in jail.

[on Leonardo DiCaprio] He looks like a girl. [on Leonardo DiCaprio] He looks like a girl.

If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their p Show more If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives. Hide

The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them. The only thing an actor owes his public is not to bore them.

[on Burt Reynolds] He's the epitome of everything that's disgusting about the thespian. He worships Show more [on Burt Reynolds] He's the epitome of everything that's disgusting about the thespian. He worships at the temple of his own narcissism. Hide

People will like you who never met you, they think you're absolutely wonderful; and then people also Show more People will like you who never met you, they think you're absolutely wonderful; and then people also will hate you, for reasons that have nothing to do with any real experience with you. People don't want to lose their enemies. We have favorite enemies, people we love to hate and we hate to love. If they do something good, we don't like it. I found myself doing that with Ronald Reagan. He is anathema to me. If he does something that's reasonable, I find my mind trying to find some way to interpret it so that it's not reasonable, so that somewhere it's jingoist extremism. Hide

Acting is just hustling. Acting is just hustling.

You can say something in a certain spirit, with a smile, but when it appears in print, there's no sm Show more You can say something in a certain spirit, with a smile, but when it appears in print, there's no smile. Hide

I had a great deal of respect for Don Corleone; I saw him as a man of substance, tradition, dignity, Show more I had a great deal of respect for Don Corleone; I saw him as a man of substance, tradition, dignity, refinement, a man of unerring instinct who just happened to live in a violent world and who had to protect himself and his family in this environment. I saw him as a decent person regardless of what he had to do, as a man who believed in family values and was shaped by events just like the rest of us. Hide

I put on an act sometimes, and people think I'm insensitive. Really, it's like a kind of armour beca Show more I put on an act sometimes, and people think I'm insensitive. Really, it's like a kind of armour because I'm too sensitive. If there are two hundred people in a room and one of them doesn't like me, I've got to get out. Hide

I know I'm not an easy person to get along with, I'm no walk in the park. I know I'm not an easy person to get along with, I'm no walk in the park.

What people are willing to do in front of a public is puzzling. I don't understand why they do it. I Show more What people are willing to do in front of a public is puzzling. I don't understand why they do it. I guess it makes them feel a little less lonely. I always found it distasteful and not something I cared to do. Hide

[on Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)] I don't know what that film's about. So much of it was improvised. Show more [on Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)] I don't know what that film's about. So much of it was improvised. [Bernardo Bertolucci] wanted to do this, to do that. I'd seen his other movie, Il conformista (1970), and I thought he was a man of special talent. And he thought of all kinds of improvisations. He let me do anything. He told me the general area of what he wanted and I tried to produce the words or the action. Hide

I am myself, and if I have to hit my head against a brick wall to remain true to myself, I will do i Show more I am myself, and if I have to hit my head against a brick wall to remain true to myself, I will do it. Hide

Acting is an empty and useless profession. Acting is an empty and useless profession.

I don't know Woody Allen, but I like him very much. I saw Annie Hall (1977) -- enjoyed it enormously Show more I don't know Woody Allen, but I like him very much. I saw Annie Hall (1977) -- enjoyed it enormously, He's an important man. Woody Allen can't make any sense out of this world and he really tells wonderful jokes about it. Don't you think it was remarkable that his time came to get his door prize at the Academy Awards and he stayed home and played his clarinet? That was as witty and funny a thing as you could do. Hide

Marlon Brando's FILMOGRAPHY - Page 3

as Actor (58)

The Island of Dr. Moreau

The Wild One

Superman Return

A Countess from Hong Kong

Val (2021)

Guys and Dolls